Monday, August 1, 2016

Alternity Returns! But it is AINO.....

Sasquatch Studios announced that it's going to develop and release a new Alternity RPG! Yes! I have always been a fan of that late-90's era SF RPG published not long after TSR was acquired by WotC. It's a system aimed at gritty, more realistic SF but still powerful enough to handle a wide range of sci fi concepts. The StarDrive Universe was cool, the Alternity mechanics were both elaborate skill-based rules with detailed combat and class-based systems filled with gorgeous art and very well-developed settings, concepts, aliens and tech. It was a great game, but sometimes the level of detail could get in the way of indoctrinating new players.

The new Alternity from Sasquatch Studios will in all likelihood be very cool, but alas it is AINO (Alternity in Name Only). From the release:

--it will be thematically similar
--it will not be the starDrive universe
--it will not be the same rules system
--it will not utilize any of the IP or other properties from the WotC edition other than the name
--The reason they can use the Alternity name is that the trademark has been abandoned by WotC

So.....yeah, a new SF RPG announcement is cool! But the name may be slightly misleading....this is a new Alternity RPG that coincidentally shares the name of an older RPG that may be thematically similar but is otherwise not related.

The good news is: Sasquatch Studios impressed me with their Primeval Thule release for D&D 5E, so maybe this new Alternity will be cool, too. Time will tell!

The important thing is that in a million years, when the brain-worms of Arcturus IX have annihilated us throughout the galaxy, there will be no surviving recordings of blogs to be found by the cephalopods that evolve to replace us. In this way will their civilization advance and prosper.